International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

Description

This is the second phase of the Desert Margins Programme (DMP) project.
The overall objective of the DMP is to arrest land degradation in Africaâ€™s desert margins through demonstration and capacity building activities developed through unraveling the complex causative factors of desertification, both climatic (internal) and human-induced (external), and the formulation and piloting of appropriate holistic solutions.
The wider objective (Goal) of the DMP GEF project is to conserve and restore biodiversity in the desert margins through sustainable utilization. Its specific objective (Purpose) is to develop and implement strategies for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of dryland biodiversity (to enhance ecosystem function and resilience).
The GEF increment to this project will enable the programme to address issues of global environmental importance, in addition to the issues of national economic and environmental importance, and in particular the loss of biological diversity, reduced sequestration of carbon, and increased soil erosion and sedimentation, associated with land degradation in these arid and semi-arid ecotones.

Implementation Status

The second year of phase II was used by DMP stakeholders to intensify the scaling-up and out of the promising â€œbest bet technologies identified during phase I and year 2 of phase II. These address testing and implementing technologies/strategies for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of degraded agro-ecosystems (output 2) and testing and promotion of sustainable alternative livelihood options (output 4). Others technologies being implemented during the period address capacity building (output 3) and participation of stakeholders (output 7). Technologies that address the problem of land degradation include management of degraded land using improvement of rangeland productivity, rehabilitation of degraded lands through tree planting such as Accacia Senegal and eucalyptus, local level monitoring (LLM), a tool for farmers to collect information on land use indicators. A number of technologies being implemented in many countries in west and central Africa include promotion of Pomme du Sahel, the market gardens and planting of gum Arabic. Use of soil/water/nutrient models for dry land crops, fruit trees, bee keeping and honey production are being promoted in Kenya as alternative livelihood option wile processing of Mopane worms is the main technology that addresses alternative livelihood option I Zimbabwe. The FIRM and LLM approaches are being scaled up in Namibia and Botswana and environmental education is being organized for schools in South Africa. A book is being prepared summarizing these findings.